


Fantasy Containment

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dimension Travel, F/M, Last Resorts, Not Steve Friendly, Team Tony, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-15 08:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19291927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: When the TARDIS ends up in Tony's backyard post-snap, it couldn't have been timed better.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

For Tony, it started when a blue box crash-landed near the house he shared with Pepper and Morgan.

Turned out to be a ship of some description. The crew consisted of an alien who looked and sounded like a hawk-featured Lancaster man in his 40s called the Doctor, a 19-year-old blonde Londoner with a cockney accent called Rose, and a guy from the 51st century called Jack. They’d been suddenly and unexpectedly dragged through dimensional walls.

While Tony was intrigued, he left them to their business.

Then Rogers, Romanoff, and Lang showed up with their asinine plan.

It was the stupidest thing Tony had ever heard in his life. Death mattered, and doing what they were suggesting would take that away. He was actually grateful when Pepper sent Morgan out to force the conversation to an end.

‘I wish you’d come here to ask me something else; anything else,’ Tony said, carrying Morgan across the porch. ‘I’m honestly happy to see you guys. All of you.’ He wasn’t, but he was long since used to acting like he was fine when he wasn’t. ‘Oh, and the table is set for six. If you don’t talk shop, you can stay for lunch.’

They just all got up and stormed off without a word.

Tony’s eyes narrowed as he watched them drive off.

‘Well, that was rude!’

Tony turned his head at the sound of Rose’s voice. All three of them were standing there, glaring after the car. They wouldn’t have been seen, but it was clear they’d heard the whole thing. From the looks on their faces, Tony guessed they must’ve known something about time travel. And what those idiots wanted to do was possible, but not advisable.

‘Know something?’ Tony asked.

‘I’m a Time Lord,’ the Doctor said.

All in the name he supposed. ‘So, I guess what they want to do is a no-no?’

‘It goes against all the laws of time,’ Jack stated.

So, those six seats were occupied over lunch. Over lunch, the Doctor explained the Laws of Time and the Web of Time. Rose and Jack shared their own experiences of time being meddled with and the consequences. Turned out Jack was a former Time Agent, and Rose...well, she was only a human being who’d never met her father. Tony couldn’t fault her for wanting to save him from dying. But she learned from the experience.

Besides, it was good for Morgan to hear this; it enforced the idea that actions had consequences and rules existed for a reason.

‘The main problem,’ Pepper said, as she took the dishes to clean up, ‘is that Rogers and his pack of followers are notoriously bad at taking “no” for an answer. Tony’s the best engineer on the planet, so they’ll be back. And if they can’t trick him into doing it, they’ll try and force him to do it.’

The Doctor sat back, folding his arms and scowling thoughtfully.

‘What are you thinking, Doc?’ Jack asked.

‘I have been doing a bit of research on these stupid apes,’ the Doctor said. ‘Like Pepper said, they’re notoriously bad at taking “no” for an answer. They’ve been shielded from consequences for so long that they have no concept of how the real world works. And quite a few of them have the idea that the ends justifies the means.’

Rose’s eyes shot to Morgan, who had already hopped down from her chair and was obliviously playing with her toys.

‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ the Doctor said.

Tony tensed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pepper freeze.

‘I looked at them too,’ Jack said. ‘The way those guys behave, the only way to stop them would be to put them in a fantasy containment.’

‘A what now?’ Tony asked.

‘What’s a fantasy containment?’ Rose asked.

‘It’s a mental construct,’ Jack answered. ‘It’s seen as a last resort for people who can’t be held any other way. You create a fantasy world that their minds live in while the physical body drops into a coma. A lot of people don’t like doing it because it’s mental manipulation without consent.’

Well, that was a step up. Tony huffed. ‘Well, Rogers didn’t see the problem with Maximoff doing that.’

‘Hm.’ The Doctor didn’t sound impressed. ‘From the scan I took of him while you were talking, Rogers’ capacity for empathy is underwhelming. If he hasn’t personally experienced it, or he can’t draw comparisons to himself, he can’t comprehend it.’ The Doctor huffed. ‘That and he, and Romanoff, are refusing to move on. From their movements in the last five years, they’ve done nothing but mope. But the minute this idiot shows up with the vaguest semblance of an idea that they think’ll make things go back to the way they were, they jump to their feet? That doesn’t say anything good for them.’

‘What do you mean?’ Jack asked.

‘The greatest asset of you humans is your ability to adapt,’ the Doctor said. ‘It’s how you survive. You get thrown into a new situation, you adapt, and you survive. If they can’t do that, they’re doomed anyway. Failure to adapt means death.’

Rose smiled at him.

The Doctor nodded to Tony. ‘I mean, look at you. You yourself told me the Decimation took Peter Parker from you, and that was devastating to you because of how much potential the kid had.’ The way he nodded and looked led Tony to believe the Doctor had intimate knowledge of just how much it hurt to lose a kid with _that_ much potential. ‘But you moved on. You got married, you had your own kid, and you moved on with your life. You didn’t sit around and mope about it. You know the kid wouldn’t want you to live like that.’

There was a silence at the table.

‘So...’ Jack hesitated. ‘We’re going with the fantasy containment.’

‘Well, like you said,’ the Doctor said, ‘it’s the only thing that’ll make them stop. There are too many risks for my liking to try anything else.’

In some way, Tony knew, everyone was looking at the still-oblivious Morgan.

‘Tony,’ the Doctor drew his attention. ‘We’ll need your help for the template.’

DWDWDW

Tony was amazed at the sheer size contained within a small box.

‘Interior’s in a different dimension,’ was all the Doctor said and that was good enough for Tony.

‘So...what did you mean by “template”?’ Tony asked.

‘A sequence of events that set up the fantasy world we’re putting them in,’ the Doctor said. ‘This is the only part we construct. The rest of it they do themselves.’

Tony nodded. ‘Okay...’ So, they got to work.

The Doctor showed him how to use the interface they were utilising to construct the template.

‘So...’ Tony decided to ask while they worked, ‘how do you know so much? I know you said you researched them, but what you do know seems a bit extensive.’

‘The TARDIS exists across all of time and space,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’m linked to her. I know everything.’

Tony froze then. ‘...Everything?’

Then the Doctor looked up at him. It’d been a long time since he’d seen quite that level of compassion directed at him. ‘You were just a child when your parents died, Tony. Your dad was an idiot, yeah, but he had his reasons. There should have been a time when you were ready to talk to him properly, but you never got the chance. On top of that, there were a lot of people involved in covering that up. They chose to use the friction between you two against you, partially because it worked better for them if you never got closure. The way you reacted in that bunker was perfectly natural – not just for a human either. Any species would react the same way given those circumstances.’

In that moment, Tony understood why both Rose and Jack were so willing to follow this man.

Tony felt better. He believed the Doctor when he told him that he held no fault for what happened there – and, thinking logically, it was true. And God knew enough people (namely Fury) had used Tony’s perception of his father against him; to manipulate him. Tony was going to be doing a thorough background check when this was over; see just how far that went.

Thinking about it, this wasn’t exactly a good thing to be doing. They were essentially dropping them into comas for no other reason than they felt it was the only way. Tony wasn’t inclined to disagree with the Doctor that they’d eventually come back to Tony and, if they didn’t get their way, they’d go after Morgan to force his hand. Tony had tried literally everything else short of killing them.

This was the only thing left (aside from that).

The Doctor wasn’t doing this because it was quick and easy.

He was doing it because it was the only way to protect A: the time stream and B: a small child.

That was worth more than anything to Tony.

This guy really was a hero.

DWDWDW

Pepper had given Jack Harkness access to the best vantage point on the property.

There were a few people in on it. Once Bruce heard that this plan was so dangerous that a Time Lord had been dragged here from another dimension to resolve it, he’d agreed. Rhodey, Rocket, and Nebula hadn’t needed nearly as much convincing. Neither had Carol Danvers. In their books, tampering with time was far too risky.

So...they’d all pulled together for this.

Rhodey and Carol manipulating those behind Rogers into coming here all at once. Pepper agreed with Tony that Steve might not consider it acceptable to use Morgan as leverage, but Natasha certainly would. But it didn’t matter who. It just mattered that it could happen. So Pepper held Morgan up on the top floor, watching Jack with his gun.

The medics were on stand-by, ready to cart them out.

Turned out people were nervous about Rogers and his best-hands-are-our-own policy anyway, especially now. The fact (which Tony had brought to their attention) that he wanted to screw around with quantum physics to bring back the dead had just gotten people even more nervous. It was easy to find accomplices in this.

So...as they approached the house, Jack fired.

All Morgan saw was a pretty ball of light shoot out of Jack’s gun.

Ten minutes later, a number of comatose bodies were carted away.

DWDWDW

Rose stood next to the Doctor, watching the template unfold into the fantasy world.

‘So...as far as they’re concerned Tony’s dead, Romanoff’s dead, Bruce’s stuck in the Hulk form, the Infinity Stones have been destroyed, and they won?’ she asked.

‘Yup,’ the Doctor said. ‘Rassilon! I know Tony said they’d buy right into it but I didn’t think they really would. That is the most ridiculous fantasy world I’ve ever seen.’

Rose nodded. ‘Rogers showing up at the end doesn’t even make sense!’

‘And nobody questioned it.’ The Doctor nodded to himself.

Rose looked at him. ‘So...they’re not likely to break out?’

‘Nope.’ The Doctor had explained that if they realised the world they were in wasn’t real, they could actually wake up – but first they had to know it wasn’t real for a fact.

‘Blimey!’ Rose laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just came up with this.
> 
> It addresses a lot of my pet peeves. For instance: The epitome of virtue couldn't even manage a "no, thank you"?
> 
> On top of that, why would this happen? Well, the Time War has left the Web of Time damaged enough as it is. My theory is that all universes are somehow connected and who knows what consequences Scott's little plan would have? So the TARDIS saw what they were planning and went, 'Yeah, no.'


	2. A Word in Your Ear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol, Rhodey, Thor, Nebula, and Rocket are brought into the loop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These scenes from now on are in no particular order.

Rhodey had called Carol back to Earth.

He explained what he knew as he drove her to the Starks’ cabin in the woods, along with Thor, Rocket, and Nebula.

‘I’m with Tony,’ Carol said as they went. ‘Time travel’s certainly possible, but it’s not really feasible.’

‘Yup,’ Rocket said. ‘I’ve looked into the theory. All experiments into time travel have ended with the travellers disappearing into thin air. That’s why there’s been scarcely any.’

‘Well, we might get an explanation for that,’ Rhodey said. ‘Seems a Time Lord was torn through dimensional barriers and crashed into Tony’s backyard.’

‘A Time Lord?’ Thor asked. ‘Then I suppose what the Captain wishes is something we should certainly not do?’

‘One would think,’ Nebula remarked.

‘Can we not just tell him that?’ Thor asked.

‘He wouldn’t listen,’ Rhodey said. ‘If there’s one thing the Civil War, and the fiasco with Thanos, taught me, it’s that Cap doesn’t listen to things he didn’t want to hear.’

‘Meaning?’ Carol asked.

‘To take an example,’ Rhodey said, ‘do you remember the car accident that killed Howard and Maria Stark?’

‘Yeah. It was the biggest news in America for a week.’

‘Wasn’t a car accident.’ Rhodey’s eyes narrowed. ‘HYDRA had sent the Winter Soldier to assassinate them and covered it up. Rogers knew for two years before Tony got the pleasure,’ the word was said in heavy scorn, ‘of being shown a videotape of the assassination with Rogers and the killer standing a few feet away from him. Tony, of course, lashed out and ended up beaten to a bloody pulp by two super-soldiers. Sure, Barnes was brainwashed at the time he killed them, but even now Rogers keeps making excuse after excuse after excuse, and he refuses to hear that Tony may have been justified in his anger.’

When Thor spoke, his voice was bewildered. ‘Is that...the incident wherein the Captain keeps insisting that “it was so long ago” Son of Stark should be over it?’

‘That’s the one.’

Hell! No wonder Tony was pissed at Rogers. Carol remembered when she’d brought him and Nebula back to Earth. Rogers had rushed over to Tony. Carol had noticed the genius flinch away from him, and then more willingly embrace Pepper. It was a small recoil, but it was there. With that context, it was no wonder. How could Rogers even think Tony would want to be anywhere near him?

Did he not acknowledge it when he was wrong?

Carol hadn’t seen them since returning to Earth, and now she was not eager to do so.

Soon, they came to the cabin. There was an unfamiliar guy sitting on the front porch with a drink. As they got out and approached the porch, Tony came out.

‘She all right, Jack?’ he asked.

‘Hasn’t come out of her tent,’ the man said. He then spotted them. ‘Hello,’ he drawled with a flirtatious grin, flashing a set of perfect white teeth – at all of them. ‘Captain Jack Harkness.’

Rhodey barked out a laugh. ‘Oh, my God, Tony! He’s as bad as you were.’

Tony laughed. ‘Oh, he’s worse than I ever was. He flirts with everybody.’

‘I’m open to more than flirting.’ Jack waggled his eyebrows.

Tony laughed and playfully shoved Jack. ‘Okay, can you take them in to see the Doctor so he can explain what’s going on. I’m gonna go check on Morgan.’ Tony strolled off the porch and headed down towards the small set up across the clearing.

‘Morgan?’ Thor asked.

‘Morgan is Tony’s daughter,’ Nebula said.

With that statement, they went in. The Doctor – the Time Lord – looked human. He looked like a man in his 40s with hawkish features. He sounded like he was from Northern England. But a lot of aliens looked human, after all. He, Pepper, Jack, and Rose explained what had happened, what they were worried about, and what they were doing about it.

Carol wouldn’t deny that there was necessity in it. Once she knew what Romanoff was, she’d done her homework. The woman would do anything to win. She’d been trained from an early age to think that winning was the most important thing. It wasn’t unreasonable to think she may use a little girl to get what she thought she needed out of Tony in order to win.  
Rose’s recounting of what happened when they’d come to Tony with their time travel idea, and he said no, told Carol a lot. Most importantly, they didn’t think of Tony as a person worthy of basic human decency. Added onto the fact that they hadn’t contacted him in five years until they thought he had use spoke volumes as well.

Carol completely believed they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

But there was one thing she wasn’t sure of.

‘Do you really think they’d target her?’ she asked Rhodey as they sat on the back porch after the explanations were all finished, eyes cast out towards the shore of the lake. By the lakeside, Tony was helping Morgan make mud pies. Rhodey had his nose buried in an iPad, looking up something or other.

‘Barton’s been going around killing people since his family were dusted,’ Rhodey said. ‘And when he got arrested and put in the Raft, because he answered Cap’s call, he lashed out at Tony. I don’t think he’ll think too much of taking Tony’s daughter hostage to force his hand. Romanoff will do anything to win, and she was taken when she was four. She doesn’t have a sense of right or wrong; she only has a sense of winning and losing.’

‘And Rogers?’

‘I think he’ll put up a token protest, but then he’ll be convinced it’s the only way to get Tony’s “help”,’ the quotation marks could just about be heard, ‘and he’ll trust Romanoff and Barton not to hurt her.’

‘What about Lang?’

Rhodey sighed. ‘I’ll be frank; last ten minutes I’ve been reading up on him. Last time, it was pretty clear – when Tony got him the deal – that he hadn’t been told anything. They called him up and said “Captain America needs your help” and he ran in without asking questions. Initially, I was gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was swept up in Captain America hero worship, then I read all this.’ He handed the iPad over.

Carol took it and read it. ‘Wait...he...Robin Hooded a company like VistaCorp? What was wrong with calling the FBI?’

‘Damned if I know.’ Rhodey shrugged. ‘Not glamorous enough? I think this is a guy that dives in without thinking of the consequences and then is genuinely surprised when he’s treated like the bad guy. He’s the only one I feel sorry for doing this to.’ He leaned over and tapped on the video so Carol could watch it. ‘Everhart may have been ruthless, but she was an excellent journalist. That’s why Tony preferred her. She would dig as deep as possible and then tell it like it was.’ He shook his head. ‘I think they won’t tell him and he won’t think too hard about it.’

‘Would Tony submit if they did take her hostage?’ Carol asked.

‘No.’ Rhodey smirked, clearly amused at the very idea. ‘He’d blow them to kingdom come and rescue her. Because that’s how Tony responds to hostage situations. He did it to the Ten Rings. He did it to Killian. He’d do it to them too, _especially_ if they went after Morgan.’

Carol smiled for a moment. ‘So, why are we doing this to Lang too if he’s just a well-meaning but ignorant idiot?’

Jack chose that moment to come onto the porch and answer, announcing his presence. ‘Because he’s the instigator, and the Doctor feels he’ll have the training to understand this somewhat. Being in the quantum realm and experiencing time dilation...’ He shook his head. ‘Idiot or not, it’d give him a deeper understanding of how this sort of thing works.’

‘So, the Doctor feels he could get them out and we’d be back at square one?’ Carol asked.

‘Pretty much.’

DWDWDW

‘Time Lord?’ Thor asked.

The Doctor glanced up at him. ‘Last of.’

Thor frowned. ‘I couldn’t protect my people from Thanos. And I failed to stop the Mad Titan from killing half the universe either.’

The Doctor looked up at him, longer this time. ‘I doubt anything could have really stopped him.’

Thor sighed. ‘I could have used the hammer and struck him in the head. Even he admitted that would have killed him. But I aimed for the chest.’

The Doctor straightened up and faced him fully. ‘In my dimension, there was a race of aliens called the Daleks. They became the biggest threat in the universe and my people went to war with them with the whole of creation at stake. In the end, I had to destroy both races.’ He folded his arms. ‘What if I told you that in my youth that I had the chance to destroy them before they ever developed into such a threat?’

Thor frowned. ‘Why didn’t you?’

The Doctor pressed his lips together for a moment. ‘Because, for all the fear and pain and suffering they caused, I realised they also did an awful lot of good in bringing the people of the universe together.’

Thor understood what the Doctor was saying.

He began thinking. What good had come from Thanos’s killing?

Perhaps he ought to speak to Rocket, Lady Nebula and Lady Marvel to find that out.

DWDWDW

As Thor walked out, the Doctor watched him go.

The man was the truth behind the myth of the Viking God of Thunder Thor. But it was clear that his feelings of guilt had caused him to really let himself go. And the look in his eyes...Yeah, the Doctor was really concerned about him. Added to the fact that he’d been living in the same building as the stupid apes that he was in the process of trying to stop.

Yeah, the Doctor was concerned.

And he was considering asking him to come along when they left.


	3. No Room to Argue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Conversation with Bruce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, in no particular order.

When Rhodey told him they went to Bruce for it, Tony knew they had to haul him in to let him know, in no uncertain terms, that this was _not_ something they should be doing.

‘Well, you’re specialised in the squishy sciences,’ Tony said as he paced around the console room, running a hand through his hair in frustration. ‘They can’t seriously expect you to build a time machine.’

‘Well, you wouldn’t,’ Bruce said. ‘So they came to me.’

‘Of course they did,’ Tony grumbled. ‘They couldn’t get what they wanted out of genius number one so they turn to genius number two, even if it’s completely out of his field of expertise.’ Tony let that stew for a minute. ‘Why didn’t they go to Shuri?’

‘Shuri?’ Bruce sounded knocked off-balance.

‘Yeah, you know, the Wakandan princess who’s also a tech genius?’ Tony asked pointedly. ‘Rhodey told me what happened. She nearly got the Mind Stone out of Vision’s head before Thanos’s cronies walked in. If they want a time machine and I refused to make it, wouldn’t she be the perfect person to go to next? Why didn’t they?’

The line was silent for a moment. ‘I...don’t know.’

‘I do. After it occurred to me, I called up Wakanda and asked. Shuri actually came to the phone herself.’

‘So...why not?’

‘Wakanda’s already done experiments in time travel,’ Tony said. ‘It’s usually fine with objects, but sometimes those objects vanish and can’t be brought back. They consider it too risky to send a living, breathing person through time. Shuri would have said the same thing I did.’

‘Would have?’

‘Turns out they didn’t even ask. My best guess is that she would’ve been their next option if you’d said no.’

‘Well, how could I say “no”, Tony? They’re right.’

‘Bruce, the fact that a _Time Lord_ landed in my backyard just before they showed up suggests the contrary,’ Tony snapped. ‘They’re not right. And you know it!’

‘Tony, you were the one who made a murder bot and...’

‘Are we conveniently forgetting our part in that?’ Tony asked snidely. ‘You didn’t exactly argue with me. Besides, you know as well as I do that the interface wasn’t anywhere near completion. I don’t know why everyone thinks I should automatically know anything about an alien artefact that we were in the process of scanning.’

‘Tony...’ Bruce sighed.

Tony was about to say something else when the Doctor walked past and plucked his phone out of his hand. He immediately brought it to his ear and said, ‘I hope you’re not trying to pass the buck because no one listened when Tony said there was another invasion coming, then got their clocks cleaned when the aforementioned invasion did occur.’

Tony smirked.

Looked like the Doctor had enough of this.

Bruce was gonna get _told_!

DWDWDW

The Doctor smirked to himself as Banner stuttered in surprised when the new voice addressed him.

‘Who are you?’ he finally managed.

‘I’m the Time Lord,’ the Doctor said. ‘And, no, you can’t change the past. Do you want the very fabric of reality to be unwoven?’

There was a stunned silence on the other end.

The Doctor ploughed on. ‘Rule one for time travel: If you know it’s gonna happen, you aren’t allowed to change it. If it never happened, how do you know it happened in the first place in order to stop it happening?’ He waited for an answer that he knew wouldn’t come.

Sure enough, Banner stuttered through trying to come up with a non-existent answer before sighing. ‘Okay, you’ve got me there, but what about all the people that died?’

‘You bring them back you invalidate the very reality of death,’ the Doctor said harshly. ‘You can’t just erase death because you don’t like it. Do you think it would’ve been fine to bring back the 450 million people who died as a result of the Black Death, the 40 million of the first World War, the 85 million of the second World War, the 40 million who were killed by Genghis Khan, or the untold numbers who were killed by the Holocaust?’

Banner was silent. ‘...No.’

‘Then why are you trying to invalidate the deaths of the people who Thanos murdered?’

‘I didn’t...’ Banner trailed off. ‘Steve and Natasha made it sound better than that.’

‘Yeah, well, Romanoff only thinks in terms of winning and losing, and she’s been taught from a young age not to lose.’ The Doctor leaned over his console. ‘Rogers has always wanted to be a hero. That was his whole motive for wanting to join the war. After Thanos killed all those people, he was absolutely crucified. He hated that. He was used to Tony taking the fall for his mistakes. Suddenly, the world was turning on _him_ , not Tony. Because _he_ was meant to be the hero that saved the day, not Tony.’

The Doctor noticed Tony smirking at that, but he ignored it.

‘Steve’s...’ Banner struggled. ‘He’s not that shallow.’

‘Isn’t he?’ the Doctor asked simply.

From the silence on the other end, the Doctor knew that Banner was remembering exactly what Steve’s opinion of the public turning on him was. The Doctor had seen the footage from the compound and he knew as well as Banner did. ‘Well...then how do you explain Lang?’ Banner tried again. ‘He’s the one who came up with the idea.’

‘Don’t be a stupid ape. He was in the Quantum Realm for the past five years,’ the Doctor said. ‘He went in right before Thanos snapped and came out to find half of everyone gone. The guy was grieving. Bargaining is a part of grieving. I should think you’d know that. According to my data, he’s got a daughter that he should be focusing on rather than making gaping leaps in logic between time dilation and time travel. Oh, well. She’s got her mother, I suppose.’

The Doctor could almost hear the physicist cringe.

‘Why did you really agree to their plan, Banner?’ the Doctor asked. ‘I just did a simulation of what would happen if you did bring all those people back.’ He looked at the results in question. ‘It’s ugly.’

A curious Tony walked around the console to take a look. A hiss slipped between his teeth as he saw the results. Most humans wouldn't be able to understand what was on the screen. _Wow, this guy really is a genius._

‘What do you mean?’ Banner asked.

‘All over the planet, there are plants that are manned 24/7 by specially-trained technicians. What do you suppose happened to those people when the Snap erased half of all life? You should be directly in front of a computer. Look up what happened to those plants.’

The Doctor heard Banner doing just that. After a few minutes Banner said, ‘They’re...most of them are either condemned or radiation zones.’

‘Exactly. And reversing the Snap will make the people who died come back exactly where they disappeared from. That’s not even mentioning the people who were in moving vehicles at the time – trains, cars, airplanes. Then you’ve got the fact that everyone who died did so five years ago. All of their assets have been passed on. The economy has changed to accommodate a far smaller population. Bringing all those people back would create the biggest refugee crisis in history. I’ve been around, so trust me when I say the governments of the world would leave looking after those people to the various welfare organisations – and most of them have disbanded.’

With that, he handed the phone back to Tony.

‘See why I said “no”?’ Tony asked. ‘And I didn’t even think of half of that stuff.’

Banner obviously asked him why he said no.

‘Because it sounded asinine,’ Tony said. ‘For God’s sake, Lang compared it to _Back to the Future_. Now, I like _Back to the Future_ as much as the next geek, but it’s fiction. It’s just one theory as to how time travel works. Made by humans, no less, in an era where we don’t understand the first thing about time travel.’ He shrugged. ‘Lang also seemed to forget that when Marty screwed around with time, it never ended well for him.’

The Doctor chuckled at that remark.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know. You people just need to remember that “genius” is not a decorative title.’

Banner made a remark on the other end of the phone.

‘Oh, I know they won’t stop. Romanoff used that excuse when she let Rogers go at the airport. When he thinks he needs to do something, he won’t stop. We have to make him stop. That’s where you come in.’

The Doctor refocused on his work as Banner asked Tony another question.

‘Well, when they realise they can’t get what they want out of you, and then they get a firm “no” from Shuri, they’ll circle back to me. Nobody thinks it’s that far-fetched for Romanoff to think my four-year-old kid would make good leverage against me.’ Tony waved his hand. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this is the same woman who shoved you down a hole because you didn’t want to Hulk out on your own.’ He gave a smirk. ‘Of course I’ve got a point. Now, here’s what I need you to do.’

The Doctor smirked.


	4. Mental Manipulation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wanda was capable of mental interfacing.
> 
> The Doctor considers this a cause for concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are, again, in no particular order.

‘What’s goin’ on?’ Rose asked as she walked into the med bay where Jack was setting up.

‘Seems there was this woman called Wanda Maximoff who was capable of mental interfacing,’ Jack said. ‘She got them by participating in illegal experiments which she volunteered for because she wanted to kill Tony.’

‘What for?’ Rose asked in disbelief. Tony was a perfectly decent bloke. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to kill him.

‘Personal tragedy.’ Jack huffed. ‘Tony’s company was started in the second World War, by his old man. It manufactured weapons until 2008, when Tony discovered that backdoor dealings had been happening for years. He got rid of the rotten eggs and reformed it into a technology company. But, before that, Maximoff and her brother were living in a country wrapped up in a Civil War. When they were ten a bomb hit their apartment building and killed their parents. They became trapped under the rubble, then a second shell landed with “Stark” written across it.’ He then went on to tell her about the Ultron ordeal.

‘And then Rogers just welcomes her on board?’ Rose demanded.

‘Pretty much, and no one really argues.’ Jack frowned. ‘Doc thinks she went into their heads and made them sympathetic to her. We looked up on her powers and she’s certainly capable of it. She could interfere with someone’s mind without them ever noticing, kind of like post-hypnotic suggestion. It also explains why Banner was completely fine with her after she forced him to Hulk out and attack a civilian population.’ He nodded his head. ‘Once the Doc suggested it to Tony, Tony considered the idea and then agreed to let the Doctor check. We’re setting up the Med-Bay because the Doc’s never seen artificial telepathy before and he doesn’t know if Tony’ll need it if she has been in his head.’

‘Would that work on us?’ Rose asked.

‘Me, less so,’ Jack said. ‘My brain’s more advanced than yours. Once humans start encountering these sorts of things, their brains evolve to defend themselves against mental attack. The Doctor’s from a race with powerful telepathy, so he’d be able to just fight it off. I asked about you, and he told me that the TARDIS being inside your head offers a higher resistance than you usually have and, if that isn’t enough, she actually goes out of her way to alert you to the fact that your mind is being manipulated.’

‘How?’

‘That’s what I asked.’ Jack grinned. ‘The Doc said that non-telepathic beings like you would get sensations. You’d feel like something wasn’t right, or you’d get queasy. Or your common sense would be able to break through. It’s usually muted when somebody else is controlling your mind; that little voice that tells you when you shouldn’t do something.’

Reassured by that, Rose helped Jack finish setting up the Med-Bay.

Moments later, the Doctor walked in with Tony. The American genius looked a little nervous as he walked in. ‘So...something could go wrong...?’ he asked.

‘Usually, telepathy is a naturally-occurring phenomenon,’ the Doctor explained. ‘I’ve never actually had to deal with artificially-created telepathy that was gained for malicious reasons. I don’t exactly know what’s going to happen if she has been in there.’

‘Okay.’ Tony took a deep breath and then walked over to the examination table. Without another word, he laid down on it, folded his hand, and closed his eyes.

The Doctor walked around and laid his hands on either side of Tony’s head, fingers splayed. He shut his own eyes. ‘Okay. I’m going in.’

To Rose, it looked like he was just standing there, but, like Jack said, she wasn’t telepathic. She looked at him. He gave a wry smile, so she guessed he wasn’t strong enough of a telepath to pick up on what the Doctor was doing.

The Doctor’s brow suddenly furrowed.

‘Found something?’ Rose asked.

‘Yeah. She’s strung her influence right through his brain.’

‘What’s that mean?’ Tony asked.

‘It means that she makes you believe every negative thing you hear about yourself. She’s forced you to feel constantly guilty for her own personal tragedy, and to make you feel like you owe that sorry excuse for a team everything they want as soon as they ask for it. She’s also made you feel unwelcome in your own compound. She clearly wanted to emotionally destroy you.’

‘Can you get rid of it?’ Jack asked.

‘It’s subtle but not very strong. I’m peeling it away now. It’s like PVA glue on a child’s hands, honestly.’

‘I can’t feel a thing,’ Tony mused.

‘Part of it, I imagine, is because your separation from her has weakened her grip on you. Like I said, though, it’s not very strong. This is clearly not a form of manipulation she was well-versed in.’

‘Well, according to her HYDRA files, she was more trained for the telekinesis and short-term mind-control. The most subtle thing she ever did was sleep-deprivation torture.’

‘Short-term?’ Rose asked.

‘Torturing answers out of people,’ Jack said. ‘Paralysing them with a vision of their worst fear or memory – that sort of thing. From what I read, they did experiment with it, but she preferred the quicker stuff so she was less enthusiastic about training that particular part of her power. She had a little training on long-term mind-control, but not a lot.’

Tony threw his two cents in. ‘Barton had exposure to the Mind Stone, so he was able to cut her off at the pass when she tried to paralyse him.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘That’s probably when she decided the far more subtle long-term mind control was the way to go. And it seems to have been much more effective on you lot.’ He paused. ‘Tony, take a deep breath and exhale.’

As Tony did so, a red mist wafted out from between his lips.

‘Was that it?’ Rose asked.

The Doctor pulled back from Tony. ‘That was it. Your mind is clear.’

DWDWDW

When Rhodey and the others arrived and Tony told them about what the Doctor had done for him, both Rhodey and Thor agreed to let the Doctor see if Wanda had been in their heads too.

Pepper, Happy, and the others had no need as they’d never had any contact with Maximoff at all.

It turned out she’d been in both Rhodey and Thor’s heads.

Rhodey had been surprised – so had Tony – as Rhodey’s behaviour towards Wanda had never been particularly sympathetic. Then Rhodey remembered that he had to push aside any sympathy for Wanda a lot of the time. Pepper had drawn the necessary conclusions.

‘You’ve been friends with Tony for years,’ she’d said. ‘You’re used to putting your friendship in the back seat when you feel like something needs to be done. You probably ended up bringing the same thing to Maximoff.’

Thor hadn’t been overly surprised that the Doctor found her influence in his mind. ‘Among my people, her actions would earn her an instant death penalty. When I heard what had happened to Son of Stark, I began thinking of my own thoughts since I met her. I pondered why I was so eager to waver what is a standard practice of justice among my own people. It seemed reasonable to presume she may have tampered with my mind.’

The Doctor had just smiled at his reasoning.

‘I would,’ Pepper heard him say to Rose later, ‘like to look at the others, but Rogers and Romanoff would never accept it. I doubt she went into Lang’s head and, from the sounds of things, Barton would never accept another telepathic contact, even if it was to potentially help him.’

‘What about Dr. Banner?’

‘Oh, he’s a possibility.’


	5. Nothing to See Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The deed is done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little shorter.

_‘At 12:03am this morning, four members of the Avengers were found in the forest, in a comatose state. The members in question are Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America, Natasha Romanoff, the former assassin/spy known as the Black Widow, Clint Barton, the former sniper known as Hawkeye, and an unknown. Enquries revealed that the four of them had gone to Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Princess Shuri of Wakanda, seeking a time travel device.’_

_Shuri’s face appeared on-screen with a caption identifying her. ‘As far as I can tell, our John Doe, as you say, had experienced time dilation. He made the leap from that to time travel and convinced the other three that such a thing was possible. They approached Tony Stark first, who contacted me to find out if I had received such a request. I had not at the time. Whilst Wakanda has experimented with time travel, we have determined it to be far too risky to send living beings through time as the inanimate objects we have sent have a tendency to become lost.’_

Tony clicked and the TV flicked off.

‘So, that’s it then?’ Rose asked. ‘Crisis averted?’

‘Oh, yeah,’ the Doctor said. ‘They don’t even remember coming into these woods in order to do anything sinister. As far as they’re concerned, Tony and Pepper talked it over extensively and Tony invented time travel in an impossibly short amount of time.’

‘And they fell for that?’ Jack asked. ‘But time travel took humans hundreds of years to work out.’

‘They’re still in the comas, so they fell for it.’ The Doctor nodded his head. ‘Judging from their past behaviour, I realised they’d expect Tony to work it out in days at most. They don’t care how, just that he does it. So, I used what was already there. FRIDAY helped out on that one. Nice job making an AI like that, by the way. That sort of technology isn’t supposed to be possible for another century or so.’

Tony just grinned.

‘And thank you for your help, FRIDAY,’ the Doctor said.

‘You’re welcome, Doctor,’ FRIDAY said.

‘Well!’ The Doctor sprung up to his feet. ‘That’s that, then. When we bring Thor back home, I’ll check up on it, but I doubt they’ll work their way out of it.’

‘Yup.’ Tony stood up too. ‘Just one question.’

‘Yeah?’

‘You said Romanoff sacrificed herself,’ Tony said. ‘So, what happens when they die in there before they physically die?’

‘Oh, the fantasy continues and they stay in the coma,’ Jack told him. ‘If they believe in an afterlife, they go to that. From the looks of Romanoff, she doesn’t, so everything just went black.’

DWDWDW

Bruce sat back in his lab.

He wasn’t sure about what the Doctor and his cohort had done, but the guy _had_ removed Maximoff’s influence from his mind. Bruce shuddered just to think of it. Initially, he’d thought the guy was full of crap and had agreed just to prove it. Then the Doctor ended up peeling Maximoff’s influences out of his brain. Bruce had been forced to admit it.  
She’d been in his head; she’d been in all of their heads.

That woman should have been hauled before a court of law, not protected from the consequences of her actions. A quick search had found that Sokovia still employed the death penalty. She had most likely hadn’t realised that America, as a whole, didn’t like executing people, but then again, Sokovia may have insisted on trying her themselves. Of course, with how she’d reacted to being “locked up”, Bruce didn’t doubt that she didn’t want to see the inside of _any_ prison cell.

Maximoff had not only played the victim (probably genuinely believed she was the victim) but she’d forced everyone else to see her like that.

He should have gone ballistic when he saw her – this woman who’d forced the Hulk to attack a civilian population – but he’d just accepted her presence. He’d accepted it because she’d been in his head. He made him see her as a child who’d been led astray. She’d wanted that, so she could escape the consequences of her actions.

Bruce wondered just how deep her influence went.

Now that he thought of it, it made no sense for Natasha to mean anything to him. He loved Betty, and he’d never stopped. Maybe he’d been using Natasha as a rebound but that should have ended when she shoved him down a hole to make him Hulk out against his will. Why was he still fine, even defensive over her, after that?

The Hulk, of all people, answered that. _BECAUSE WITCH SEE THAT SPIDER CONTROL HULK. WITCH NO WANT TO GET SMASH. SHE USE SPIDER._

Bruce groaned. That made an annoying amount of sense.

Bruce had told her he could kill her without changing colour. As people did with Tony when he didn’t have the suit, Maximoff would have dismissed Bruce himself but she’d have worried about the Hulk. Maybe she even started in that lab when she realised that Natasha could talk the Hulk down. She was telepathic. He didn’t doubt she could access the information.

Of course, this was all speculation.

But it was entirely possible.

DWDWDW

Tony chuckled as he watched Morgan rush ahead of Pepper towards the vehicle.

Her first public outing.

While Tony and Pepper had spent the years of her life teaching her how to behave in public, Tony knew anything she did would be cooed over. After all, when he was that age, he was considered the cutest thing in the media’s eyes. It was only when he got older that they started getting critical. Tony couldn’t protect her from that, just as he could never have been protected from it.

But he could prepare her for it.

The threats to his little girl were either gone entirely, or closely monitored. Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff were in their fantasy containment. S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen when they lost half of their personnel in the Snap. Of course, Tony could have helped them stay afloat as he did with the rest of the alphabet soup, but he wasn’t really of a mind to. Those idiots had been nothing but trouble for him and his father since they day they were created. And they thought they were above the law.

So...no.

A lot of the nations which held non-democratic policies had tightened their grip on their people. Even though this world was not united and would not be for a very long time (if the Doctor was to be believed), they were all united in one thought: the world had been dealt a crushing blow, and everyone was to do their bit.

Tony had gone over all of his previous interactions with a fine toothed comb. Anyone in the same country as Morgan would be kept very far away from her, by the grace of the considerable wealth and influence held in the palm of his hand – that people who-shall-remain-nameless seemed ignorant of.

Morgan would grow up in the spotlight, as he did. But, unlike him, she wouldn’t be burdered by a neglectful father, or a batch of unscrupulous puppet masters who would manipulate things to their benefit from the shadows and only directly approach her when they felt she had something they wanted that they couldn’t just take; people who would kill her if they thought it would benefit them.

Pepper would be in charge of teaching her people skills. That was an area Tony couldn’t help her with. But Pepper knew people. She’d teach Morgan how to spot the body language and the social cues to read people accurately. After all, there’d be more people than you could count coming to Morgan for her money and influence.

She was set to inherit her parents’ multi-billion-dollar fortune and company.

And she had to be ready for it.

If it was the last thing Tony did, he’d ensure that Morgan Howard Stark lived a happy and healthy life.


	6. Loose Ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon returning to the Whoniverse, a few loose ends are tied up.

Rose sat in the flat with her mum, telling her about their latest adventure.

‘They were gonna grab a kid just to make her dad do what they wanted?’ Jackie demanded. ‘They’re lucky I wasn’t there, I’d have slapped them into the next century.’

Rose had to laugh, because her mum would have done far more than that.

Super-soldier or no, master assassins or no; nobody could handle Jackie Tyler when she got angry.

DWDWDW

‘So...’ Jack leaned over to look down at the Doctor. ‘What was up with Lang?’

‘A prime example of a stupid ape,’ the Doctor said around the sonic screwdriver between his teeth.

‘Not what I meant,’ Jack said. ‘He was only grieving, and made a desperate leap in logic before going to the wrong people. Did we really need to throw him in there too?’

The Doctor heaved a sigh before pulling himself out from under the console. ‘I considered that, Captain. Early 21st century, humans are still very juvenile. They’ve barely crawled out of the muck. Hero worship is a part of that, and the legend of Captain America had really been hammed up. All Americans in this world, at this time period, have been raised with the idea that Captain America was the paragon of virtue, the perfect soldier, the thing they should aspire to be. That’s why the era they’ve just entered; the Age of Superheroes _had_ to happen.’

Jack frowned. ‘Don’t quite get it.’

‘Right.’ The Doctor plopped down in the pilot seat. ‘The only example of a hero these people had was a man who was claimed to be utterly perfect. Some even called him the Man That Could Do No Wrong.’

‘Oh.’ Jack chuckled. ‘I get it. Not a very good thing to be teaching the kids.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘So the world needed more examples. He was the “greatest” simply because he was the only one. I looked forward in the timeline of that world. Thanks to Tony, Rogers’ place will eventually be taken over by Spider-Man. Though the kid’s tenure was only three years long, his message is something that Tony will spread to the rest of the world; and it’s a message everyone can get behind, regardless of their social beliefs.’

‘What message?’

‘With Great Power comes Great Responsibility.’ The Doctor grinned. ‘And, though he’ll reach, Captain America levels of legacy, he’ll never be considered perfect as Rogers was; never cause that kind of damage even if he does come back from the dead.’

Jack looked surprised. ‘Okay, first: could he? And second: why not?’

The Doctor screwed up his face. ‘Potentially. There are a few potential futures where Spider-Man and a few of his mates get brought back. Mostly by cosmic accident.’ He then answered the second question. ‘Because unlike Rogers, you can’t dress up the start of his tenure and make it look glorious when it’s really the selfish actions of an idiot. Spider-Man got started not when he was bitten by the radioactive lab spider that gave him his powers, but when he deliberately ignored a cry for help. His inaction came back to haunt him and the closest thing he had to a father...well, he was shot dead by the same armed burglar the wall-crawler had let run past him.’

Jack pulled a face. ‘How old was he at this point?’

‘14 or 15.’

‘You can’t expect a kid that young to intercept an armed burglar,’ Jack insisted.

‘Reasonably, no,’ the Doctor said. ‘But heroes are held at a different standard. He _would_ be expected to intervene.’ He shook his head. ‘The point is that it would allow people to see that even heroes make mistakes; even they are human. And the amount of idiots like Lang decreases significantly.’

Jack cracked a grin. ‘Ah, back to the main question!’

The Doctor good-naturedly rolled his eyes. ‘Lang believed every word of the Legend of Captain America. He was not only star-struck, but he’s not too deep of a thinker.’

‘You had no interaction with him,’ Jack said. ‘How do you know that?’

The information immediately appeared on the TARDIS console screen, in Jack’s first language. The Doctor grinned and nodded to it. Jack pulled the screen around and looked at it. As he did, his eyebrows crept higher and higher until he looked back at the Doctor in disbelief and astonishment.

‘This guy does a Robin Hood on a multi-million dollar company because they’re essentially stealing?’

‘Yup.’

‘Did he try reporting it first?’

‘Nope.’

‘To _anyone_?’

‘Nope.’

Jack’s jaw hung open for a moment. ‘You’re right. He’s not much of a thinker.’ He shook his head. ‘I guess that means his Back to the Future reference was in line with his personality then?’

‘Yup.’

‘Did he ever realise how stupid this was?’ Jack pointed at the screen, only for the text to change, this time displaying the information of what he did after getting out of prison on parole: break into and steal from a Stark Industries property because his new boss wanted him to, believing that something of his own was in there. Jack sighed in exasperation.   
‘Obviously not.’

‘Exactly,’ the Doctor said. ‘And this would have been just the same. You know as well as I do that it’s easier to break people free from a fantasy containment from the outside. From the inside, he has to work out that it’s not real before he can break out. Idiot or not, Lang is still an engineer.’

Jack turned. ‘Yeah, but he wasn’t Tony’s level or anything. What are the odds he’d be able to build a machine to reverse the fantasy containment.’

‘Him, not too good. It’s distant future alien technology.’ The Doctor tapped his skull. ‘So I looked before I made sure.’

‘So it’s true?’ Jack asked. ‘That story about Time Lords being able to see the Span of Time?’

‘It’s true, and there are plenty of other geniuses he could go to and convince to help him pull it off.’ The Doctor frowned.

‘You mean like that Reed Richards guy?’ Jack asked.

‘Not really, but people like him – Victor Von Doom would do it, so would various inhumans and mutants.’ He pulled a face. ‘Some would know it’d be stirring up trouble and that’s why they’d done it; others would honestly think they were doing something good. Over the years, all of the blame for Rogers’ mistakes and damages were dropped a Tony’s feet. It’s a bit too soon for most people to notice the drop in incidents and put two and two together.’

Jack nodded to himself and considered what the Doctor had said. ‘So...what you’re saying is that, if left out of the containment, Lang would find a way to pull them out of it and Tony’d be back to square one.’

‘Yup.’

Jack paused. ‘What’d you mean by Richards not doing it?’

‘Richards is the leader of the Fantastic Four,’ the Doctor said. ‘They suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves with powers, and at the centre of press attention. Tony immediately stepped in and started teaching them how to navigate in a world where everybody knows your name and cares about what you had for breakfast. As a result, they’re friends – and by some miracle all four members survived the Snap.’

‘So, Richards would get Tony’s perspective before agreeing to help Lang,’ Jack concluded. ‘And end up turning Lang away with a strong word or two.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Odds are good.’

DWDWDW

Thor shovelled another handful of chips into his mouth.

The Doctor’s lifestyle had done wonders for removing the excess body weight he’d gained over those five years. It also helped being around another who knew the feeling of failing in one’s duty. While the Captain had also failed, he, Thor had come to realise, had no true feeling for the masses of nameless citizens who had suffered as a result of their failure. He had only cared about those whose faces and names he knew.

Thor didn’t think he did it intentionally, but it seemed that Captain America had never considered those he didn’t know as important.

Then there was the Doctor. Yes, people did still die but he was never cavalier about it. When the Doctor was faced with a dead body as a result of his actions, his first question was always, without fail, ‘What was his name?’

The Doctor never forgot a single person who died on his watch.

Every single one of them was vitally important to him.

That, Thor had come to realise, was where the Doctor and Son of Stark stood shoulder-to-shoulder.

Both of them took death as a matter of the direst importance. No single death was to be dismissed or merely “unfortunate”. Every life was important to both of them. It was a virtue that Thor had overlooked for far too long; a virtue that Captain Rogers simply did not possess. He might regret seeing the dead body of a civilian, but he would not stop to move them into a more dignified position and pay them respects as the Doctor did.

More times than Thor cared to count, the Doctor had stopped by a dead body. He had rolled the person onto their back, folded their arms over their chest, and closed their lifeless eyes.

He had never seen Captain Rogers do that.

Yes...Thor was having to re-evaluate just what made a warrior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the moment, this is all I've got.
> 
> So...barring any new ideas, this is the end.

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the fact that I've gotten trolls who apparently don't care about whether I moderate my stories or not, and still comment with the clear intention to annoy the writer, I found myself having to decide whether to continue just deleting their comments or disable anonymous commenting.
> 
> As I have better things to do that deal with comments from people that have nothing better to do than look for people to troll (and I have recently had to deal with someone like that in real life), I have disabled anonymous commenting on all of my stories.
> 
> I apologise to my readers who do not have an account and wish to comment, but you can gain an account by requesting one and it generally takes no more than a few days.


End file.
